I am new to this forum (one post on the boardroom page), so I will try to be circumspect, but I feel I must make a statement here.
Firstly, let me say that I know and understand losing children due to the mistakes of others. I have lost two daughters. I say this not to gain sympathy but to provide evidence of my understanding when I say I understand the pain of loss.
My daughters did not need to die - it was two different mistakes at two different times by doctors who were "experts" in their fields and who made basic errors that resulted in the deaths of my daughters. I am over 60 years old now and it is nearly 40 years since these events, but the pain will always be there.
But perhaps time and age lend me a perspective that is not yet present in many of you "youngsters" on this forum, and perhaps many of you have not yet lived long enough to realise that we all make mistakes and do things that we later regret - sometimes till the day we die. Some mistakes are big, some illegal, some small with little in the way of consequences that yet loom large in our own conscienses.
I have made many mistakes in my 60+ years, many of which I regret. You will all make mistakes if you haven't already. If you are very lucky, those mistakes will not cost anyone their lives. If you are very lucky, you will never find yourselves in a position where your decisions will inevitably hurt people.
When you understand that we are only human, perhaps you will be a little more tolerant and lenient towards the mistakes of other people. The mistakes I have made in my life have occasionally caused people emotional hurt. The mistakes other people have made have cost me two daughters, and yet I cannot hate these people, I do not want to kill them and I do not wish them evil or bad thoughts for the rest of their lives. They are human and they made mistakes and that cost lives. To me, not having an incubator ready when a woman is having a premature birth under difficult circumstances is a terrible error for a specialist university hospital to make, and a daughter died because of that error, and to me such a basic error by a seasoned professional medical team is much worse than a silly young man getting behind the wheel of a car under the influence of alcohol.
While I did and still do blame the medical professional for their blatant errors, I did not and I do not wish to see them prosecuted, even though they caused my daughters death through sheer negligence. I did not and I do not desire them to be punished - they made a mistake - as we all do. I got lucky - my mistakes never killed anyone - theirs did. Should I hate them for that? Should I want to kill them for that? Nothing will bring my daughters back.
From what I am reading, there seem to be two points that are upsetting some on this forum. The fact that the sentence was too short and the fact that he will be allowed to play football again.
So sorry for those that disagree, but this young man served the sentence that the justice system of the country in which he committed the crime gave him, including any reduction in time served for good behaviour. To blame this silly boy for the length of the sentence he served is folly - blame the system, not the one sentenced.
Secondly, why on Earth should this lad not return to playing football? It is his profession for goodness sake! Is this jealousy speaking here that he will potentially earn more than most of us ever will and you feel he shouldn't because he made a mistake? And of course it makes a difference if he genuinely admits his mistake, regrets the consequences of his actions and is willing to do all he can to make up for it and help other people to avoid making the same or similar tragic and stupid mistake that he made.
And to openly state that you personally would be willing to kill him if given 5 minutes alone with him is not only incredibly stupid but is probably also actionable under the laws that you so cry out against as being inadequate.
To you that are so unforgiving, I can only hope that you or your children or your close friends or relatives do not make a stupid mistake in your lives and find yourselves on the other side of this argument wishing for forgiveness for your stupidity that some are not willing to give you.
For those of you that have also suffered tradgedy, I am sorry for your losses and the consequences that were caused by the mistakes of others. But I refuse to be a victim and I long ago forgave those that caused me so much pain and loss. I forgave those that did this to me and my wife and their brothers and sisters, and perhaps those who have reacted so violently to this tradgedy should remember that it did not happen to them, they were not involved, they do not know the full story and it is for the people that suffered tradgedy to forgive or not forgive, to take veangance or not take veangance. I would hesitate before being so veangefull towards a silly youth who's bad mistake caused so much damage to others than you yourselves.
I am not religous, but it does not take religion to forgive those that cause you so much hurt, and it does not require religion to realise that we all make mistakes and should consider ourselves fortunate that the mistakes we have made and the mistakes that we will inevitably make do not result in such tradgedy. Remeber that the next time you are, for instance, driving, and for just an instant let yourself be distracted by your child in the back seat. You just got lucky that your split second of inatention did not result in you killing that woman and her child in the pushchair at the side of the road.
And would I have this young man playing for our beloved and sadly beset club. If his remorse is genuine, then why on Earth not?
